User reviews

Two Africans are killed 2,000 years ago by a pair of African witch doctor-looking men. In the present day, a white South African medical examiner is investigating the deaths of prostitutes who are killed by a weapon that leaves five holes in their skulls. Somehow he connects this to tribes in Africa that had lived 10,000 years ago.

He also refuses to sign a blank death certificate for an African hero. Government officials, including the prime minister, try to pressure him to do it, while a black couple hopes that he will not.

He hallucinates his wife (not sure what that was all about), and seemingly hallucinates late- night drives and conversations with prostitutes that turn out to have been real.

What the ancient Africans have to do with anything, or why the prostitutes were being killed, is beyond me. Perhaps a South African audience would have understood this movie better.

As others have said, it's a snoozer. Lots of scenes of nothing happening, and the lead actor is a mumbler who isn't particularly charismatic.

Civil rights advocate is killed, beaten to death by police during an interrogation, and Medical Examiner is being pressured into signing off on a bogus autopsy report declaring the death to be a suicide to prevent a potential race riot. The ME is dealing with his own drama, hallucinating and having flashbacks to a lost love while investigating a series of brutal murders of prostitutes on the streets of London. The murder weapon of choice appears to be some sort of spiked club thingie used in Africa more than 2000 years ago.

That minor subplot is played up big time on the original video box (Where the front cover depicts a Faces Of Death-type of skeleton clutching a cityscape and looking ominously toward the sky, while the back cover actually shows a (reversed) still from the film revealing a major character's death!) The video box might have promised a blood curdling horror, but what it delivers is a rather dull anti-apartheid "message" movie with an interesting subplot never fully realised.

This rarely seen, South Africa-lensed flick is technically well made and certainly watchable, it's competently photographed, edited, and staged, and the acting was better than can be expected, so there's nothing wrong with it from a technical viewpoint, but it never gives us a character or situation to care about one way or the other: if the M.E. doesn't sign off on the bogus autopsy, they'd have a race war and rioting. If he does, so what? And how are the prostitutes' murders and the African spiked club connected with any of this? If the focus of this had been changed, and that subplot expanded to full length, a much better horror movie could have resulted.

This film is very boring. What started out as a good, chilling horror soon turned into a boring bloodless picture. The acting, writing, directing, editing, producing, and just about everything are Grade Z. Avoid this low-budget film at all costs because I do not want to hear-"I told you so!"

I remember watching City of Blood back in 2003 with my father. My Dad is always on a hunt for obscure thrillers and he somehow found it in one of the VCD libraries close to my house. I did not realize how sought after this flick has become and people are paying premium prices to buy it just to make their collection complete.

So, it was a lazy summer afternoon and my Dad and I didn't have anything to do other than eating salted peanuts. He verbally introduced me through Joe Stewardson (who I did not know) and his stellar performance in 1972 film 'My Life'. I saw Stewardson's photo on the VCD cover and almost became sure of his acting abilities by looking at his age. Well I must say that Stewardson didn't disappoint me.

We played the VCD and saw two tribesmen about 2000 years ago running through a pristine forest with one of them wielding a strange club following his victim. The victim finally ends up near a waterfall and is brutally bludgeoned to death by the other tribesman. The scene was unique and captivated both of us. We sat tightly expecting a great slasher.

Then the film cuts to the present times, where we have Joe Stewardson playing a medical examiner. His superiors assign him a task of investigating the brutal murders of some city hookers. Stewardson is himself recovering from the death of his wife and child and is all alone to fight away his aloofness, until he meets Abigail, a young hooker, who hasn't lost her soul and still listens to her conscience. Joe tends to find solace in her arms while he is caught up between solving the murder mystery of the prostitutes and fighting his own aloofness. He somehow manages to discover that the killer is using the same ancient club to kill the victims.

By the time Stewardson discovers the truth about murder weapon, we had almost forgotten that it had something to do with the movie. The movie had become too political, tiresome and boring for us. We were expecting it to take off from where it started, but it never took off. There is a throng of other actors as well, but the film remains stale to the very end. I don't really know what inspired Roodt to direct this film. It is neither a slasher, nor a political thriller and finally not even a tad entertaining. It sluggishly drags itself through the scenes and to the last frame.

I really had a fight with my Dad that day as because of him I had to spend more than an hour of my life to watch this crap. I could have eaten peanuts alone as doing so would be a better experience.

Readers, please avoid this piece of $hit at any cost. I warn those who are dying to buy this to make their collection complete. This is one rotten and senseless film that has nothing to do with entertainment. It is gloomy, boring, sluggish and utterly useless. The only good things about this film are the opening scene where one tribesman kills another and sincere efforts by Joe Stewardson. Apart from this, there is nothing here for you.

Although marketed as a slasher, "City of Blood" is a gritty and tense political thriller with some slasher elements. It is atmospheric and stylishly directed. The outstanding Joe Stewardson is a grizzled medical examiner being strong-armed by the government to sign a death-certificate of a black leader killed in police custody. Meanwhile, a series of killings of prostitutes are traced to a 2000 year old traditional club.

This is one of my favorite Darrell Roodt films along with "Place for Weeping" and "The Stick". More so than any other director, Roodt captures the fear that was presumably setting in for white South Africans in the 1980s as apartheid began to (thankfully) crumble amidst increasing violence and opposition. A chilling and under-appreciated film.

I felt the need to add my say in City of Blood after reading nothing but bad reviews here on IMDb. And everywhere else.

There's a political message, and it is pretty much drama for a good part of the middle hour, and as a slasher fan I was worried about finally watching this. However, with a strong "2000 years ago" opening and some modern day killings with a unique slasher disguise & weaponry choices, I was satisfied with what it offered me in the sub-genre. Perhaps this is because I have seen most (and I do mean MOST) of the slasher films from the 70s and 80s, and after seeing some of the absolute worst those decades had to offer (oddly enough, not as bad as the new millennium stuff) I've been ready for City of Blood for a long time. The story is strong and if you care about more than just deaths in these types of films, you could be pleasantly surprised.

Think of this as a political cop-thriller with slasher elements rather than a slasher with a theme. I welcome it to the family, but just make sure not to expect something you're not ready for. A party film... this is not.

Judging by the incredibly low rate and the extreme negative reviews, "City of Blood" seems to be perceived by many as a total cinematographic failure. After buying this one in a little Italian Fumetti Shop (I read about Darrel Roodt's "The Stick" a couple of years ago and was simply intrigued), I decided quickly to figure out by myself why and if it really deserves this kind of reception. I must admit I'm not sure having seen the same film than nearby everybody here on IMDB... For sure, "City of Blood" hasn't much in common with every usual campy horror flick you can grab out of a 50 cent purchase bin of your favorite Walmart or even Blockbuster videoclub ... Could you REALLY expect something like that here??? "City of Blood", even if it totaly belongs to the genre, is much more than only that: it is very well directed (I love the use of the Steadycam in this movie, and the light effects), written (Darrel Roodt knows the profound wounds of his country better than anybody and tell us a terrible story to get a bit more aware of what is STILL concretely happening in South Africa... and mayby not to die too stupid...), with unusal characters and played by actors wisely chosen, far far away from the kind of Tom Cruise prototype hero - I mean so much more real, alive as human beings- that I get goosebumbs when I go with them through this living hell they(/we) are trapped in... If you love unusual, strange, uncomfortable ghost storries AND horror movies as well as Peter Weir's "The Last Wave" and John Mc Tiernan's "Nomads", on a low budget scale but with no less than true heart and talent, check this one out: "City of Blood" (beautiful titel by the way...;-)!) is for sure one of the most underrated movies on IMDB for me so far (what drove/motivated me to write once again a review after so many years). You won't be dissapointed if you don't expect the usual genre clichés. And by the way, bravo mister Roodt: your movie has something (important) to say and is still cool to watch! I simply love it!!!